Black Shoe

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

We bought our 1976 Tahiti blue MGB in Bothel Washington in 2004 from Pete Soul at Performance Motors. We named it for "Blue Boy" by Gainsborough. We call that B him, "Gainsborough".

We've recently had the interior redone and a new windshield put in at Mini-motors coach and upholstery in Salem. It was a beautiful job. He was looking good. My MGB allowance for 2011 was already spent on those repairs.

Gainsborough was a beautiful ride to work the morning of December fifth;and, I was really pleased with Gainsborough. That evening pulling out and down the parking garage ramp was the sudden sickening realization something was now wrong with the drive train. He wouldn't go into second gear.

On December 6, 2011 I found out about clutch slave cylinder's failing. I couldn't shift through second gear, and from there shifting deteriorated to not at all.

It deteriorated from the slave cylinder to a new clutch. It's sad to see our whole prim-and-proper show piece have to have its guts out on the shop bench. On the positive side, I'm really pleased with how clean and new the engine is looking at Harold's MGB's in Portland as the drive train is being reassembled. They're putting a lot of attention into the long term, what needs to be done for Gainsborough to last for years. The list engine parts below are what I've heard would put him into top condition again. Also, Billy at Harold's has isolated why Gainsborough was leaking on our garage floor. He's taking steps to improve that aspect of Gainsborough. he'll have a lot of new hoses. He'll be a much cleaner car under the hood and floor boards.

Our white MGB was part of the estate from Dick Freeman, a great resource to the British car community. He was a regular winner of the Concourse De Elegance in Forest Grove with his red 1967 MGB that looked like it was fresh off the show room floor.

I've had some weird ones with my White B, one night coming out of the garage, the lights were flashing by themselves. The following night I opened the hood and there's nothing to hold it up? That was the night the hood prop came undone; and, where did those two screws fall out at. Got those taken care of.

It amazes me how suddenly a screw can fall out and I'm left wondering where it came out of. Today there was one on the back of the white B's console. There's nothing for a 3/8" long sheet metal screw right above there.Yesterday morning there was one fell out of the driver's door onto the garage floor. That one was from the door window sill, one of two screws on the outer edge of the sill. Someone had put in round headed screws. I put flat head brass screws in and, gee the door closes a lot better now.

For the white B, I've come to call it "Whitey". It seems less socially correct. But it is a very accurate reference. If you have a more correct nick name for a white MGB, let me know.

George

We're looking for these MGB parts for our B's, that have been recommended for them:

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

A friend of mine passed away. Dick Freeman. I had the world of respect for him.
He helped me with my Blue 1976 MGB.
I have purchased one fine MGB he had when he passed away. It is this beautiful White 1976 MGB V-8.
It is a thrill to drive this car. It has a well tuned exhaust which has a growling rumble when you're out cruising. It's purr is a rrrr-umble type exhaust sound.

This picture is of me in the White V-8 MGB on 57th street in S. E. Portland.

This is one fine MG. Dick Freeman was a winner at the Concourse D'elegance in Forest Grove. His Red 67 MGB looked like it was a show room car.

Don't Amazon and RD.A9.com get it;
When they implement adware, don't they know the customer isn't going to look at their product if the adware software stops the user from seeing their advertisement or ordering their product.
It would be great for the vendor if the idea was to stop the sale of the competitor's product.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Hi!I was at the US Navy's Boot Camp, Recruit Training Command (RTC) Great Lakes from December 22, 1966 until May 9, 1967.I am using my blog as a way to find other recruits who were there over the snowy winter of 1966-1967.If you're a member of company 739 or fellow companies, I'd enjoy hearing from you.After a twenty-two+ year career I retired from the Navy.Our recent 21 inches of snow in Oregon brought back memories of that winter, and I am looking for leads as to where those other recruits may have gone or ended up.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Okay. I'm hear to brag about my Loving Wife (LW) again.So on the first day of freezing weather, we got up to no heat.Freezing has been unusual here in West Linn Oregon until this past week.I was due at work. So LW sent me off on my way and assured me she'd take care of the heater problem.Our Trane furnace-air conditioner a TRANE XV90 has a condensate reservoir and pump which pumps the water to outside the back of our garage.About 10:00 AM I called and we talked about the problem. LW told me the condensate pipe to outside the garage had frozen. Our heater has a shutoff mechanism which triggers to turn off the furnace if the condensate pump reservoir is overly full.She disconnected the pipe and the heater started to work.Then our neighbor who was venturing out in the snow and cold agreed to get her some pvc pipe and 1/2" hose.LW hooked up the hose where the pipe had previously come out of the pump, and put a length of pipe under the garage door to protect the hose from the garage door. It worked.Then the next morning, I discovered the pvc had frozen. I just put the frozen pipe into the sink and warmed it up. We now leave the hose in a bucket each freezing night.Our one son's house has the same type of heater. His hose drains from the basement furnace to the condensate pump reservoir and then into the basement deep sink by the washing machine. The warmth of the basement keeps it from freezing.We may take a lesson for the success of one installation over the other.Our garage furnace is adjacent to our laundry room. It would be easy, but require a hole through the wall between them, to drain the hose into the toilet tank, bowl or sewer drain pipe hole there. We haven't decided yet. I'll let you know what we agree to do.